La ballata delle balàte in Australia

Vincenzo Pirrotta will shortly return to Australia to present his play La ballata delle balàte at the Street Theatre in Canberra on 5 April (7.30pm, registration here) and on 7-8 April at the Italian Forum in Leichhardt, Sydney (7.30pm, registration here). On 6 April at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Sydney (6.00-9.00pm, registration here) Pirrotta will introduce and discuss the play. La ballata delle balàte is a one-hour monologue in Sicilian dialect (English surtitles), written, interpreted and directed by Pirrotta accompanied by music by Giovanni Parrinello performed by Dario Sulis. The protagonist is a mafioso fugitive who in his hideout proclaims his faith in God while at the same time following the cruel logic of the mafia. The play offers a profound reflection on the relation between mafia and religious devotion with its staging marking the duality between sacred and profane (the blood of Christ and of mafia victims cohabit in the mafioso’s mind) and culminating in the adoration of a monstrance containing a characteristic form of mafia instruction (pizzzini). The hideout becomes for the mafioso a kind of place of worship, made out of church candles, a table and two chairs, where he prays wearing a crown of thorns and a noose around his neck.

Acclaimed playwright, theatre director and actor, Vincenzo Pirrotta studied at I.N.D.A. (Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico) in Siracusa and was subsequently a pupil of Mimmo Cuticchio, who taught him the art of the Sicilian cuntu (storytelling). Winner of several theatre criticism awards, founder of the Esperidio theatre company, buoyant interpreter of countless theatre works presented both in Italy and abroad, Vincenzo Pirrotta is one of the most influential and innovative voices of Italian theatre. In December 2015 Vincenzo presented in Sydney the show Terra matta, produced by the Teatro Stabile in Catania and based on Vincenzo Rabito’s autobiography.

Photographs by Jo-Anne Duggan

The photos displayed on our background and page headers were taken by Jo-Anne Duggan (1962-2011), a remarkable scholar and photographer. A full survey of her work and details of her writings and exhibitions can be found online at: http://www.jo-anne-duggan.com/. We are very grateful to the copyright holders, Kevin Bayley and Phillip Virgo, for permission to reproduce her photographs on this site.

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